Best Buy stores are now certified to repair Apple devices

By Christian de Looper Published June 19, 2019

Apple is notorious for making it difficult to get its devices repaired, but it looks like it’s making an effort to make the repair process a little easier. The company announced that it is partnering with Best Buy to offer authorized and certified repairs.

With the expansion, Apple is making it more convenient for people to get their devices repaired. It’s not uncommon for Apple customers to not live close to an Apple Store. It’s much more common, however, for customers to live near Best Buy. With the expansion, Apple says that eight out of 10 Apple customers live within 20 minutes of an Apple authorized service provider.

Recommended Videos

There are plenty of cities where there’s no Apple Store, and those are the cities where the expansion will be most important. Cities like Sioux City, Iowa; Twin Falls, Idaho, and so on.

“If a customer ever needs to repair their products, we want them to feel confident those repairs are done safely and correctly,” Apple said in a statement “We’re always looking at how we can reliably expand our network of trained technicians and we’re excited to partner with every Best Buy store so it’s even easier for our customers to find an authorized repair location near them.”

Best Buy’s Geek Squad now has around 7,600 Apple-certified technicians, and those technicians are capable of making same-day repairs on iPhones, plus they can service many of Apple’s other products.

There are other Apple authorized service providers around the country, too. According to Apple, there are now more than 1,800 third-party authorized service providers in the U.S., which is three times as many locations as three years ago.

This is not the first time Apple and Best Buy have buddied up. In April, Apple announced it was expanding its iPhone recycling program with Best Buy collecting used iPhones for recycling. With the program, iPhones are disassembled and materials are reused in new iPhone models.

If you are looking to get your iPhone repaired, it is beneficial to go to an authorized service provider. Unauthorized providers don’t use genuine Apple parts, which could make for a lower-quality repair.

Christian de Looper

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Christian de Looper is a long-time freelance writer who has covered every facet of the consumer tech and electric vehicle…

Topics

Phones

Galaxy Z Fold 8: Everything we know

Samsung's boldest foldable redesign yet is now official, with a lighter build, a genuinely useful cover screen, and pricing that undercuts the pricier Fold 8 Ultra.

Symbol, Electronics, Mobile Phone

For most of its existence, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold has solved one problem while creating another. The book-style foldable has let buyers carry a tablet-sized screen in their pocket without actually carrying a tablet. But, through no fault of its own, that came at the cost of a cover screen so tall and narrow that using it one-handed felt unnatural and uncomfortable.

Viewing content on the inner screen came with giant black bars at the top and bottom, too. Samsung has now fixed that with the Galaxy Z Fold 8, and it's official: shorter, wider, passport-shaped, and a cover screen you can actually type on without contorting your fingers.

Phones

Samsung’s next tracker may look better while becoming harder to actually attach

Samsung may redesign the SmartTag right into an AirTag annoyance

Samsung Galaxy SmartTag 2 in Black and White variants

Samsung appears ready to redesign its Galaxy SmartTag again. This time, the makeover could come at the expense of one of the SmartTag 2’s most practical advantages. SamMobile's latest report has shared the supposed design of the upcoming Galaxy SmartTag 3.

The smart tracker can be seen with a compact squircle-shaped body that resembles Samsung's recent One UI icons and the shape used around newer Galaxy Watch displays. In comparison, the current SmartTag 2 looks a lot different, with a longer pill-shaped body dominated by a big integrated loop at one end. The leaked SmartTag 3 diagram does away with that loop entirely.

Phones

Tecno shows off a bezel-less concept phone that looks achingly breathtaking

Tecno's bezel-free phone could be revealed at IFA 2026 in September.

Tecno camon bezel free concept phone.

Say what you will about bezel-less phones, how bad they are for typing, and how they are a glorified ergonomics nightmare, but you can't deny their charm. For over a decade, smartphone makers have made numerous attempts to reduce or eliminate those black borders. The likes of Vivo went with a sloping screen, while others like the ill-fated Essential and Xiaomi just kept trimming the sides. Apple and Samsung followed in their footsteps, but neither of them has tried anything too audacious lately.

Tecno, it seems, wants to go bezel-less without any tricks. The brand just released a short teaser video showing its "next-gen bezelless concept phone." It's a concept phone, so keep that designation in mind. The brand hasn't said when this phone will be officially showcased, or launched, but IFA 2026 is our best bet. As for the device itself, it just looks stunning, and rumors also suggest that the bezel race will be white hot in 2027.